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Decades of silence

The families’ campaign for justice did not begin immediately. It would be twenty years before the Bloody Sunday Justice Campaign came into existence. It operated for just six years – from 1992 until 1998, when the British government broke with all precedent and conceded to a new inquiry.

In the intervening years, Bloody Sunday was rarely mentioned other than by those closely affected. Once a year, on the anniversary, families, friends and fellow citizens would gather for annual commemorations in Derry, and, for many, the annual march became an important gesture of public remembrance.

The stigma of being associated with Bloody Sunday and thereby with ‘terrorism’ persisted for many years. Lord Widgery’s 1972 report did nothing to alleviate the suffering when it apportioned blame to the victims themselves. The immediate false narrative circulated by the British state thus became the ‘official’ version of events, endorsed by the Lord Chief Justice of the day. Widgery was to prove a disaster for the British state and its relationship with Northern Ireland.

From around 1989, discussion concentrated on the idea of an organisation to refocus attention on Bloody Sunday. Bereaved relatives and survivors were spurred on by the case of the Guildford Four, who were triumphantly released in October 1989 after a widespread campaign.

About the Museum of Free Derry

The Museum of Free Derry tells the story of how a largely working class community rose up against the years of oppression it had endured. The museum and archive has become an integral part of Ireland’s radical and civil rights heritage.

The museum also tells the story of Bloody Sunday, the day when the British Army committed mass murder on the streets of the Bogside. It tells the story of how the people of Derry, led by the families of the victims, overcame the injustice and wrote a new chapter in the history of civil rights, which has become a source of international inspiration.

The museum is a public space where the concept of Free Derry can be explored in both historic and contemporary contexts. Free Derry is about our future together as much as it is about the past. The struggle of Free Derry is part of a wider struggle in Ireland and internationally for freedom and equality for all.